Vikings play one of their best performances of the season, but come up short in OT to the Houston Texans.

After a slow start in the first half the Vikings came in after halftime and let loose on the offense. Scoring 20 points in the 3rd quarter having a 10 point lead at one point. However, when the 4th quarter came around the momentum shifted. Texans put up 24 points looking to seal a win in regulation, but not so fast. Vikings retaliated with one last big play to WR Sammy Rosemond for a 61 yd TD to the endzone to allow them to take back the lead by only 3 points with only 31 seconds left on the clock.

Texans came out with only 1 time out left and a very smart gameplan. Taking advantage of the sidelines and slowly inching closer to get themselves within Field Goal range, but it wasn’t going to be easy. With only 2 second on the clock, they needed this 53 yard field goal to allow them a chance at overtime. Vikings attempted to ice the kicker by calling a timeout. That timeout appeared to have rattled the kicker as his coach, not liking the looks he was getting from his kickers face, called his own timeout to give him a chance to think about it. After a few words from his coach, he sent him back out on the field to give it another try. Whatever he said worked, he barely cleared a 53 yard field goal that barely made it over the goal post bottom bar, but it made it. 

NRG stadium erupted into cheers so loud you would have thought they won more than a chance to play in overtime.

The stadium being so loud served the Texans well as the Vikings punter shanked one off his left side of his foot, and kicked the ball to the far left out of bounds. This gave the Texans great field position on the penalty. The clearly exhausted Vikings defense did their best to try and keep the ball out of the Texans hands, deflecting a number of plays, but the conversions on big passing plays on 3rd down, is what kept them in it, and ultimately paved the way for a 7 yard short pass to the endzone for the win. The Vikings Offense looking on in despair watching all their second half work go down the drain.  

The Vikings Coach had these words to say about the devastating loss. 

“These boys played their heart out, I really felt like this was our game. They managed to come up big plays when called upon to keep this game going in the right direction. However, sometimes it just is not meant to be. The Texans made some key plays when it counted the most. We made some key mistakes that cost us the most. So as big as a play Rosewood had, and even with a good defensive stance, they did just a bit more to make this win happen for them. Hats off to their team and coaching staff for making those key decisions and converting on those key plays.”

It was a game both teams desperately needed a win to jumpstart their 0-2 start.

Key Players: 

Vikings QB Joe Spencer : 133.7 RTG, 3 PASS TDs, 1 INT

Texans QB DeShaun Watson: 102 RTG, 4 PASS TDs, 2 INTs

Texans HB  Marc Monroe (Rookie) 71 RUSH YDs, 10.1 APR, 1 RUSH TD

Vikings HB Dalvin Cook 56 RUSH YDs, 3.3 APR, 2 RUSH TDs

Vikings WR Stefon DIggs, 170 REC YDs, 1 TD

Texans WR Ellis Shead 125 REC YDs, 3 REC TDs

Vikings LE Danielle Hunter 10 TCKs, 1 TFL, 3 SCKs

Vikings give it up in OT on a miraculous comeback.

If you stopped watching this at the half, and assumed it would turn out to be the usual blowout Vikings fans had grown accustomed to, you missed out one of their best performances of the season despite the slow start to this one.

The Chargers started out strong, first quarter they owned the game on both sides of the ball, scoring 14 and not allowing the Vikings to score or convert on 3rd down the entire quarter. The only upside to this quarter for Vikings was HB Austin Ekeler was knocked out of the game from a lower back injury. Forcing the Chargers to rely on backup HBs Jalen Richard & Justin Jackson. Together they made a decent showing for the game, putting up 81 more yards, and a TD.

Second quarter Chargers kept up the same pace, QB Trubinsky looked unstoppable moving the ball uncontested up and down the field putting up another 13 points. However the Vikings were slowly getting involved, scoring their first TD by way of HB Mattison rushing for 20 yards into the endzone. At the half, the Vikings trailed by 20 points ending the first half with a score of 7 to 27.

Third quarter the Vikings came out with a solid offensive game putting up 14 points and a defense that was equally motivated holding the Chargers offense to only 8 points.

Fourth quarter Vikings defense continued to dominate shutting out the Chargers for zero points and the offense put together two impressive drives that ran up to the last seconds of the game to tie it and bring it into overtime. HB Dalvin Cook, making it to the endzone with a huge assist by LT Brian O’Neill making the block that allowed him to tumble into the endzone. Tying the score 35 to 35 and sending the game into OT.

The Vikings looked to be on their way to an upset of the 4-3 Chargers, when they won the toss hoping to continue their momentum on offense. However, one bad throw from QB Spencer to TE Irv Smith, thrown behind him resulted in an interception by Chargers FS Nasir Adderley.  

The Vikings defense scrambled hard to try and keep the Chargers out of field goal range. MLB Eric Kendicks looked to have an opportunity to bring the ball back on an interception. In the perfect position to make the play, but the ball literally slid through his hands and right into WR Mike Wallace, allowing him to make the catch. The entire crowd gasped in disbelief. Kendricks sat on the ground clearly disturbed by the outcome of the play. Nonetheless, they got back up and were able to keep them from scoring a TD, but they couldn’t knock them back out of field goal range, and in the end that is what secured the win for the Chargers in overtime.

Here are the coach’s statements in regarding the game from the Press Conference:

Reporter: Can you tell us why you guys struggled so much the first half, and how you managed to keep going through that second half.

Coach: It took us some time to make the adjustments defensively. During the half we felt confident we could be effective in the second half and pull this game back in range. However, we knew it was going to have to be strong game play on our parts both sides of the ball.

Reporter: 

Such a devastating ending to a hard fought game. What was going through your head, on the muffed interception by Kendricks, and also  the pick by QB Spencer, putting them in a good position to get the field goal they needed to win in OT?
 

Coach: Part of me was regretting not going for two at the end of regulation. However, I don’t blame Kendricks, he made the best play he could have made on that ball, and it was just one of those flukely things that happens. As far as the interception, bad throws happen. We reviewed the play a number of times and it was clearly a bad throw and it's something we’ll have to work on. The other part of the issue is not getting in this position in the first place. We played catch up all game, when you do that and finally catch up, you’re still at a disadvantage.

Coach: 

Before I wrap this up, I want to give the game ball to RE Jahlil Davidson for his 4.5 sacks and giving the team the spark they needed to change the game and a nod to the entire defense, for the great game play and giving the offense that opportunity to tie it up and keep hope alive. See everyone next week.

In a game that started out slow, with the 49ers putting the first points on board, probably didn’t expect those would be their only points for the game. The rest of the game would be all Vikings ball. The offense working long drives putting up two touchdowns, one from TE Kyle Rudolph and the other from FB CJ Ham on goaline push and the rest of the points coming by way of  K Jake Elliott with his 4 FGs.
 

The rest of the game when the 49ers did get the ball, were ended by drive killing interceptions with the defense racking up 5 for the day. CB Holton Hill being a menace to QB Derek Carr, picking him off 3 times. The other two interceptions came from MLB Eric Kendricks and LB Jordan Jenkins. 

HB Dalvin Cook did his part to allow his team to maintain control of the ball, racking up 126 YDS over 28 attempts. Averaging 4.5 yds per carry. 

Coach’s Press Conference statements: 

“Our game plan was to keep their offense off the field, be patient and take what their defense gave us and not get in the situation of turning over the ball trying to make things happen which has killed us many times in the past. I would have liked to see the offense come up a little stronger, we had to settle for 4 FGs instead of touchdowns. The defense came up big, making sure the offense did not get into a race to try and outscore the other team. We aren’t quite ready for that. Game ball goes to CB Holton Hill, with the 3 INTs, 2 DEFs, in key situations that ended up killing drives that could have put points on the board for them. Hats off to the entire defense, they made plays at every position. We are a work in progress, this game finally looked like we might have some of the right pieces in place to turn things around.Last time we played SF, we looked pretty bad. The 49ers have weapons and the ability to put up points if you let them and taking that away was key to our win today.”

The Vikinsg Defense prove big hits on little guys are a formula for success in their win over the Chicago Bears. 45-20.

The Bears vs Vikings game up until the 4th quarter looked like it was going to be decided by whomever could stop the opposing offense first and score. It was a game that went back in forth, and the Bears looked to be the stronger team on offense, moving the ball down field in relative ease. However plays around the redzone proved to be their undoing. HB Tarik Cohen whom the Bears rely on heavily for offense, was not able to get those big runs in that the Bears were accustomed to. Instead, he put the ball on the ground 3 times. Effectively, ending any chances of Bears staying in the game. The game went from tied at 20 - 20 in the 4th, to 45-20 Vikings advantage in short order. The Vikings defense hustling to recover the fumbles and returning for touchdowns.

SS Harrison Smith, earned his nickname of "Hitman Harry", forcing 3 of those fumbles himself and recovering one of them. LE Danielle Hunter also created his own havok, in forcing a fumble and recovering it for a TD.

The turnovers were a huge part of this game, and really was surprising to see the Bears to continue to lean Cohen after the 2nd fumble. But he wasn't the only one, WR Robinson took a hit that also put a ball back into the Vikings hands as did Kirk Cousins, the Vikings ex-QB, in which one of the issues the Vikings had with him was his fumbling troubles and it appears they are still a problem. However, despite the late fumble Cousin passing game looked solid. Maintaining a high completion rate, and not throwing any pics until the 4th quarter.

The Vikings had their own turnover issues early on in the first half, with Bridgewater throwing 3 interceptions, and lucky for him, the Vikings defense was able to lower the impact on those turnovers by only allowing 10 points to get on the board from those 3 interceptions. Last time these two teams meet, it was all Cohen controlling the game, complimented by the passing game to put points up, and the defense stifling the offense through turnovers, and not allowing Dalvin Cook to do much on the ground.

This game started out with what appeared to be the same game plan in place, however the Vikings did a better job of handling them this time around. Offensively, they leaned on their own run game and didn't give up on it. With 30 carries between all their backs, totaling 202 yards on the ground and accounting for 2 touchdowns. Dalvin Cook, leading this effort averaging 7.3 per carry, and breaking one big run for 73 yards. Getting some big 3rd down conversions from the wide receivers to continue their drives being very conservative and methodical in their approach in the second half allowing them to keep the game close and not get away from them as it has in the past.

The Bears were looking to do the same thing, but the fumbles were making it very difficult. They attempted to gain more yardage through the air, which had gotten them some big gains, but the Vikings secondary started doing a better job of covering these plays, and getting a few interceptions as well. One interception was a great display of teamwork where CB Waynes deflected pass was tipped to his teammate CB Mike Hughes for the interception and run into endzone for a pic six. Plays like that showed how in-sync the Vikings Defense had become throughout the game.

Both the teams had nothing to gain for this win, they both will miss the playoffs this year. It was more or less a game of pride amongst division rivals. Vikings are looking to build on this performance and carry over to the next season, and to see what changes in their lineup will need to be made in the offseason. Expectations are a draft dominated by players to fill in the gaps on offense, namely the offensive line, and might see an early pick for a Wide Receiver or potentially even a QB. The Viking's coach has kept quiet on the QB situation, and no one is sure if they will maintain Bridgewater as their franchise QB going forward, or do they think the problems are elsewhere.

Cardinals can't protect QB Murray, and drop another game in loss to the Packers in Green Bay. 10-27

To no one's surprise the Cardinals looked the same as usual, the offensive line gave up 7 sacks, run game barely existed, and passing game was stifled by the inability to convert when in the redzone. With 5 straight loses the coach is in the hot seat, when asked what was going to done to fix this losing issue, this was the response, "Going to review our roster and see who can step up on the line and slow down the sacks. Make a few changes in our starting lineup and see what happens. At the point can't hurt. If we keep letting Murray take hits like he has been, he is going to have a short career. He's doing the best he can under the circumstances, so its time he gets someone else to step up o help him out. "  

Reporter: What about the run game, we haven't seen Daivid Johnson have a decent game in while?

Coach: We will be reviewing that as well, but for now we are keeping David Johnson as a starter. We are hoping that some changes in the offensive line will open up things for him.

Reporter: The defense still seems to not able to stop the run game from your oppenents, any changes in that area ?

Coach: We have issues on both sides, and it will be a time for the entire team to be under review as well and the coaching staff, and pull this thing together. We are not ignoring the weak spots, but we limited in our resources and this team is a work in progress. However, I still expect a better performance then what we've had for this season.

There you have it folks, what changes will the Cardinals make? Will it be enough? Tune in next week to find out.

Kyler Murray was there to win, but the Cardinals running game failed to show up. 15-12 lose in 4th quarter and missed a 62 yd field goal attempt to possibly put game in overtime.The second miss of the game by Zuerlien. 

The Houston Texans on the other hand, had luck on their side. QB Watson, who only threw for 136, had 2 INTs, 42 % CMP , managed to get 2 TDs. One on a long bomb throw to Hopkins that he wsan't caught, but Hopkins convinced the ref with his theatrics their was def pass interfacce which put them on the 1 yard line for a quick strike to the endzone. The the other TD came on another bomb that Fuller somehow mnaaged to come down as he and defender came down wresting for the ball, setting them up for short yardage to the endzone resulting in a TD.All this in the 4th quarter. Prior to that the Cardinals kept the Texans scoreless for 3 straight quarters. 

Cardinals QB Murray put up some of his best numbers of the season , 353 Pass yds, 1 TD, 66% CMP and no interceptions. He even endured 7 sacks, but still managed to make bigtime plays all game. Usually when a QB has a game like that, it should open up the run game and you would expect a win, not the case. HB Johnson for another straight week, failed to produce, under 2 yds per carry. HB McGuire came in late in the 4th and on 3 runs put in almost more yards then Johnson had all game. It will interesting to see if they start reducing Johnson's load 

WR Kirk for the Cardinals had one his best games this season thus far, going 5 for 144. Murray also found WR Gabriel 3 times for 79 yards and Isabella 3 times for 71, all three receivers aceraging over 20 + per catch.

Cardinals Defense was impressive for the first 3 quarters, pitching a shutout.. CB Murphy geting another INT , 2nd week in a row, and CB Poole also pulling in an INT. Rookie LE Shaq Ingram got his first sack in his career. They still showed issues with controlling the run game. The Texans HB Penny was able to get 71 yards , avg 5.5 per carry.

Asked coach their thoughts on the game. "We played a decent game, but we missed scoring opportunities that we should have been more aggresive in our play calling, not to mention missing a crucial field goal early. We shouldnt have been that close of a game to begin with. We got too conservative early, and maybe I should of looked towards McGuire sooner to get the run game going. At this point we can just learn from these mistakes and move on and prepare for next week."

Another week of the Cardinals fighting against their own weeknesses and ultimately put them in for another loss. This game was about strategy over talent and strategy did not win this time. 17-29 

Watching QB Kyler Murray doing his best to try and make plays, while under extreme durest all game, taking 10 sacks by the end of the game, from an overly aggressive 49ers defense, whose only playcall for the majority of the game was some form of a man blitz. The coach was overheard talking to the refs , requesting after the game for their 49ers defense to be checked for steriod use, "to keep up with that kind of game play for most of the game they must all be on something!'.

Even through it all, little big man Kyler Murray, took the hits and still managed to make plays, throwing for 71% completion rate 222 passing yards and a TD, no fumbles, but 1 INT in which WR Isabella got out played for the ball in one on one situation. Big play of 71 yard pass to TE Shawn WIlkerson for a TD. At one point, the Cardinals had the lead early in the 4th quarter. However, the days events clearly had taken its toll on the team, and they were not able to maintain the lead when given the opportuntiy.

The offensive line clearly struggled all game to hold up against the onslaught from the blitzing 49ers defensive. Getting called 3 times for holding penalties, as coach continually tried to make ajustments to try and counter these attacks. This effectly shut down HB David Johnson, he barely made a fraction of the yards he got in last week's game.He ended the game with only 26 total yards and a TD. The coach stated " We tried our best to stay committed to the run game, but we needed to move down field and the clock wasn't on our side. I had hope to take more advantge of the aggressive defense, but they were just overwhelmed.

The defense whom had been the good guys in all their games this season, faltered when it came to defending against the run. Allowing 205 running yards on the ground and 3 TDs. HB McKinnion accounted for 2 of those and 153 yards and the QB for the other TD. When asked the coach about that , " We knew the routine, they couldn't really run inside, so they were running out to the sides and then turning it up field. McKinnion is fast and elusive, so he was having no trouble beating our guys and even when they waited on him to trun upfield, with 4 guys in front of him managed to out juke all of them, just didn't seem to matter what angle was taken. So for as many times as they were able to stop him, he'd wear them down and eventually get through on those big run plays".

Despite the poor performance stopping the 49ers running attack, their secondary maintained their tough stance. Picking off their rookie QB twice and causing him to fumble as well. Keeping the passing game under 100 yards except for a def pass interference penalty that gave them 40 yard passing yards, but their Rookie QB still ended the day with only 133 yards in the air. 

Asked about  gameplan for next week, the coach simply said "Get better, play to our strengthes and not our weaknesses. Everyone knows our weaknesses and when they attempt to take avantage of them we need to be prepared to flip over to plan B and make it work for us and play our game, not theirs".

Can't argue with that.

Cardinals lose a close one to the Colts in Indianapolis. 25-27

I'm sure the Cardinals wish they could have had a redo on the first quarter of the game against the Colts. The first quarter was riddled with mistakes on both sides of the ball. The offense giving up a pic 6, and a fumble giving the Colts short yardage situations that they capitalize on for a touchdown.The Defense, giving up a big pass play for a TD on a miss tackle. They ended to 1st quarter down by 21, for a score of 21-0.

However, the coach pulled the whole team aside after the 1st and all we could see was the coach thumping on helmets and screaming at the team to wake up. Wake up they did, the reminder of the game it was pretty much all Cardinals. They should have pulled off the biggest comeback of their coach's career had it not been for the kicker missing 3 extra points. Zuerlien must of not been paying attention during the team pow wow. He was deserving of a huge helmet thump after his performance. 

Starting in the second half the Cardinals scored TDs in every quarter and 2 in the 4th, getting within 3, but ultimately ending the game losing by 2 pts. Kyler Murray put on an impressive show through the air, throwing for 3 passing TDs, 70% completion out of 24 atts, and 244 passing yards. Not bad for a guy that started the game 0 and 4 on passing attempts. He did throw another INT in the endzone. Another mishap that could of potentially put them in a position to win. Despite the offensive line allowing 5 sacks, Murray still manage to make plays and keep the ball moving. 

The Defense, after being dominated in the 1st quarter, pulled themselves together to keep the Colts scoreless for 2 quarters, but blew coverage on a late big throw for a TD, another mishap that kept them from having a good chance at a win. When the coach was asked about that play, the coach claimed responsibility, "It was a bad defensive playcall, we should have played more conservatively on offense, be we thought they would be trying to run the clock down, and run and didn't want to get burned. The defense played their heart out all game, so I can't really put that play on them.". The INT by DJ Swearinger in the endzone and a force fumble recovered by Aaron Lynch and Byron Murphy's INT on good drives for the Colts were key in slowing down their offense. Chandler Jones had a great game, getting in 2.5 Sacks on Grappolo, Malik Jackson, also got in 1.5 sack and E.Ansah also pulled in a sack as well. They did allow IND to get 73 yards on the ground averaging 4.6 per carry, but no TDs.

On the Offensive side, Murray was able to connect with TE Wilkerson for 8 catches and 127 yards and 1 TD. Andy Isabella also grabbed 3 catches for 32 yards and a TD and even FB Ripkowski got into the endzone on a pass play for a TD.  David Johnson ruled the field on the ground, 25 carries for 164 yards, 6.5 average per carry. He looked like like a new man, from a week ago. Right before the half he pulled off his longest run of 62 yards that looked like he was going to make it to the endzone, but fell short about 10 yards as time ran out. Chase Edmonds assited in the run game with 2 carries for 12 yards and a short yardage TD run. As team Cardinals managed  19 firstdowns compared to the Colts 9 all game. Keeping possession of the ball for 21:07 almost twice as long as the Colts, at 10:53. Much of that was due to a strong performance by David Johnson.

The game even with the bad start, showed promise for them, in being able to pick themselves up when things go south. They had plenty of opportunities to win, and those are the things they will need to work on and shore up for next week.

The Cardinals suffer a lose at home in season opener against the Rams. 

The first half of game, the Cardinals defense made a strong showing. Not allowing the Rams offense to score a TD. The Rams defense also maintain a strong presence, only allowing the Cardinals a field goal for that first and scoring a TD on a pic 6. Ending the half at a 7-3 lead for the Rams.

Then the second came, and Kyler Murray was picked off 2 more times, to allowing the Rams to get another pic six. Murray was clearly rattled by Aaron Donald, he manage to sack him numerous times throughout the game. Not allowing Murray to move around against them was clearly in the Rams game plan for defense. Murray did put up better passing yards then Goff did, but it was the turnovers that ultimately sealed the game for the Rams.

The revamped defense for the Cardinals did much better than expected without Patrick Peterson in the backfield. Traded to CHI to pick up a much needed offensive line Carl Leno Jr, and WR Taylor Gabriel to reinforce their receiving ranks. They were able to contain Gurly for the majority of the game, giving up 77 yards, averaging 3.5 yards a carry and 1 TD, where most of this came in the 4th quarter. Had the offense been able to keep the game closer, the results of Gurley's efforts would have been alot less. Free Agency pickup CB Dexter McDonald made quite impression in the backfield, coming up with the big forced fumble and recovery for a TD putting up the teams only TD on the board. He defintely seemed up to the task of being the replcaement for Peterson. 

For the Cardinals running game, David Johnson only was able to muster 38 yards, averaging 3.1 yds a carry. he appeared lethargic at times, once in awhile getting a burst here and there. Hopefully, for their sake he comes around as the season progresses. The backups run a few plays for very positive yardage on the ground. Wouldn't be surprised if Johnson doesn't produce more, may see more of the running plays regulated to Edmonds and McGuire.

When asked the coach of the thoughts, the coach felt defensively they did much better which the changes. They did a good job against the run, which was a pain point last year. Offensively, we clearly need to do a better job of picking plays for Kyler and protecting him so he can make better decisions when under durest. 

AZ Cardinals 2021 Season Preview

Coming up for 2021 Season the Arizona Cardinals look to put last season behind them and come in with a new gameplan, and some new members of the team to shore up their weak areas that were exposed and exploited during the 2020 season. Can expect some major changes on the offensive line. With the top offensive linemen Marcus Gilbert, at 33 yrs old on his last year of contract, not expecting it to be renewed they will be on the serious hunt for a replacement as well as new talent to help get their offense back on track for 2021.

Their have been rumors they may be looking to replace HB David Johnson at running back. His lackluster performance in 2020 season with only 522 yards and 5 TDs for the entire season, put his career with the Cardinals on ice. Other potential big names rumoured to be on the cutting block are CB Patrick Peterson. The 31 yr old CB past his prime, and showing some decline, expect the Cardinals to potentially look elsewhere versus renewing his contract.

Expect coaching staff to make changes to the gameplan to allow Kyler Murray to play more up to the expectations leaning towards his strengths that made him the QB draft choice back in 2019. The Coach has expressed regret that “we ( as in coaching staff ) were not able to take advantage of the many talents of Kyler Murray. We did not do our due diligence to allow him to play his best football, and we will do our best to make adjustments this upcoming season to make that happen!”

The coach recognizes the many changes they need to make , may not all come together in 1 season, but expect to do better than 4-12 and get closer to their goal of making the playoffs. ‘This is not about quick fixes, we are playing for the long game and sustainability of the Cardinals for the future”.

AZ Cardinals Free Agency/Draft Predictions

Reviewing the roster for the Cardinals, and the fact that they were one of the bottom 5 teams on offense in 2020 season, we expect to see more new faces on offense than on defense. They have notably one of the worse offensive lines in the entire league. Their better guys are on the otherside of 30 and aging out and they lack any strong talent in their younger guys. Expect to see some big changes in this area. If the Cardinals fail to make any notable personnel changes on the offensive line, it will be another tough season for their offense. They can’t afford to have Kyler Murray experience another season like they did in 2020 and be able to make through the entire season.

AZ Cardinals 2020 Season Recap:

Ending the underwhelming 2020 season at 4-12 the AZ Cardinal’s coach recaps on the season.

Reporter: Coming in as new head coach at the 3rd game of the season what were the biggest challenges you faced coming in?

Coach: We had to get to know each other, I had to learn their strengths, they had to my system. When it came together we’d win, but it was a constant learning curve all season that was the most challenging.

Reporter:  Thoughts on the over performance of the team?

Coach: Obviously, being 4-12 the performance was not as good as I would have expected. However, we had our moments. Kyler Murray is a work in progress and has the talent to be great, we just need to work on getting him the support he needs upfront and adjusting our gameplay to give him more opportunities to work his magic.  

We struggled a lot in the running game, injuries and just not being able to consistently sustain a running game that gave teams something to worry about. I had really hoped to see some of the David Johnson of old come through and be a bigger part of the offense. Defensively we struggled stopping other teams running game, which is a big part of why we ended up at 4-12. 

When you look at the records of all the teams we lost against, we didn’t lose to anyone ending the season with a worse record then we had, and of the 4 wins we only beat 1 team that ended the season with a better record and that team only ended the season with 2 more wins then we had. This tells me, we were a true 4-12 team. Teams that are underperforming in some ways, can beat teams with better records on occasion this never happened for us. So to change this for next season, we will need to change the dynamics of the team, and and entire game plan going forward.

Reporter: Looking back what would you say was their best performance of the season.

Coach: Even as a loss, I thought the game vs PHI/Eagles whom ended at 11-5, the close game we had in finally with a final score of 6 to 12 was one of the hardest fought by them despite the outcome. The difference in that game was the 2 turnovers. Murray suffered at the hands of Fletcher Cox, whom had 5 sacks for the game, but never stopped fighting, and the team rallied to keep that from being a bigger loss. 

Reporter: What was your biggest disappointment with the team that you expected a much better performance from?

Coach: I think the running game was somewhere I thought we would have done better with the talent we had. However, I do recognize our offensive line was not doing our running backs any favors as well.

Reporter: Thanks coach for your recap. I’m sure the fans hope the adjustments necessary to make this team a contender for the playoffs start to come into play for the 2021 season. Good Luck, until next time.

Vikings drop 5 straight games, even after playing a much improved passing game, from previous weeks.

Press Conference Transcript: 

Reporter:

We saw the Vikings lose another straight game, now at 5 losses. Can you give us a summary of what went wrong? In looking at the first half that ended with a tie score of 3-3, we saw glimpses of team we expect to play out there. Second half, not so much. What happened?

Coach: 

Barkley happened to keep it short.

:chuckles from the crowd:

However, in all seriousness, we had some opportunities early to put more points on the board in the first half, and we failed to do that, making an already tough game much harder to maintain as guys get tired. Barkley was able to come in and keep offense off the field, and our defense on the field longer then we wanted them out there. As you saw, much more missed tackles, and unable to wrap him on those 3rd down situations. When the offense did get out their, time running out, forced us to up the pace to try and make something happen and didn’t come out in our favor.

Reporter: 

Fair enough. Let’s talk about QB Kirk Cousins. We’ve seen the emotional rants you’ve had on his game play, and even subbing him out on previous games because of this. This game you let him stay in, and he put up close to 400 yds passing. However, he still had 2 INTs, and the delay of game earlier on that put a short goal situation out to long and goal, and ended up as a Field Goal that first drive. What are you thoughts on his gameplay ? 

Coach:

Yes, its true we’ve had our issues, this week was definitely one of his better performances despite the errors made. If I was giving him a grade, I would have gave him somewhere around a B , B-. The 2 interceptions he had 1 was early and just a hellavu play by their rookie, that surprised us. The second INT was late in the game, and I don’t fault him for trying to make something out of nothing. Even then, another rookie, made an awesome play showing great awareness he wasn’t expecting. The delay of game occurred because he didn’t like the look he was getting on the play that was called, he tried to make some adjustments and still didn’t feel right, so took the penalty. We may have scared him a bit on being sure about what he is doing when we are in a scoring situation. However, with the bad weather, he showed patience in letting plays develop, taking what the defense gave him, and that’s what we worked on. He also took 8 sacks too, so part of that, we need to look at our offensive line and figure out what is going on there. He also needs to work on throwing the ball away, or using his feet to get out of harm’s way. 

Reporter: 

The rushing game for the Vikings , was barely there, Cook, was out for a few plays, but even then you were never able to establish a run game, and we saw a lot more passing. Can you tell us about this? We expected to see more positive ground game.
 

Coach: 

So did we, we typically prefer not to put up the ball as much as we had to, that’s not our ideal situation. But gotta give hats off to the Giants Run defense, they did a great job of sniffing out whatever type run play we sent their way, or whomever was carrying the ball, and forcing us to go to the air more, and that plan worked to their advantage of getting the 2 pics, and 8 sacks.

Reporter: 

You mentioned in the opening response, Barkley was the problem. First half you kept him honest, second half seemed like he could do no wrong. Why do you think this happened?

Coach :

Defense was worn down. To try and slow Barkley down for entire half is not an easy task, and took a lot out of them. We could have done a better job at forcing them in a position to have to pass more, to take some of that burden off of them, get them off the field sooner to keep the defense fresher in the later part of the game. Putting up more points offensively would have helped tremendously in this area. When the score is tight for a large portion of the game, typically means the defense is hard at work on both sides and the team that can get their offense to take advantage of this first, is going to come out the winner. Obviously, it wasn’t our offense.

Reporter:

In preparing for next week’s game against PHI. What things will you be working one ? 

Coach: 

So many things, but ideally regardless of opponent these are fundamentals we need to get established. We need Cousins to take less sacks. Either he throws more balls away, or we make adjustments on the offensive line to not put him so many high pressure situations. Defense needs more takeways, they missed opportunities to get their hands on the ball, dropped interceptions, or in some cases out of position, on some crucial plays. Receivers, they did good this week, but that needs to continue, getting open sooner, running better routes. From the coaching side, we’ll need to review our gameplan and make better adjustments during the second half so we can maintain and be the ones taking advantage of a tired defense and not the opposite. As far as the run game, give them the support they need, and be sure to keep them involved throughout the game.

Reporter: 

Thanks coach for taking the time, and good luck next week with the Eagles.